Ink applying system



Jan. 10, 1961 G. A. GERARD INK APPLYING SYSTEM FiledjiabfllL ,illlliilFIG.2

650265 A. .Gaeneo INVENTOR.

United States Patent INK APPLYING SYSTEM George A. Gerard, 1698 EastDrive, Point Pleasant, NJ.

Filed Feb. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 715,593

Claims. (Cl. 101364) The present invention relates to an ink applyingsystem and it particularly relates to applying aniline or flexographicinks in printing procedures. With high speed presses involving highspeed feed rollers for various types of inks there is a tendency for theink to splash or spray out particularly where the ink is pressed betweenthe various feed rolls.

Particularly where the various feed or supply rollers are rotating atvery high speed with high viscosity inks a heating or boiling actionresults which causes great loss of the organic solvent thinner andfurthermore the resulting pressure involved in squeezing out the inkbetween the rolls in many cases will cause breakage of the roller shaftsin addition to resulting in. a very high driving load on the press.

It is among the objects of the present invention to pro vide an improvedink supply or feed system in connection with printing presses in whicheven though high speed is employed, there will be little or negligiblesplash and the load will be very light without any likelihood ofbreakage or undue pressure being applied to the roller shafts.

Another object is to provide a novel ink adjustment system in which theink will be reliably fed to the print; ing procedures with a minimumpressure and a mini mum drag on the press even though relatively heavyviscosity inks and high speed rollers are employed.

A still further object of the present invention is a feed system whicheven though high speed is employed with high viscosity inks, there willbe an absence of boiling action or foam and there will be elimination ornegligible loss of solvent with a decrease in cost and maintenance ofthe system and constant quality of the printingink,

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel printingsupply system in which the pre'ssmay be operated in forward or reversedirection without difficult adjustments and change of the feedarrangements.

Still further objectsand advantages will appear in the more detaileddescription set forthbelow, it being understood, however, that this moredetailed description is given by way of illustration and explanationonly'and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may bemade by those skilled in the art without depart ingfrom the scope andspirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects it has been found most satisfactoryaccording to one embodiment of the present invention to provide an inkfeed system for roller printing operations in which the ink is fed froma pump to a screen or pad roller with suitablemeans being provided ateach endof the roller to regulate the ink supply and with there beingprovided'an overflow and a return to the ink supply at a short distancefrom adjacent each end of the roller, In the preferred structure adoctor blade setup is employed whichdoctor blades are of sheet rubberand may be positionedat each end of the main ink feed roller, Thisrubber blade or doctor blade which is desirably rubber. but which mayalso be metal is desirably adjustable against the screen roller frombelow the screen roller with the actual pressure of the blade being verylight and with the drag on the press being negligible since the inkitself is permitted to act as a lubricant. The doctor blades are sopositioned at the bottom of the screen or ink carrier roller that theentire arrangement including the screen roller or pad roller may bereadily reversed in direction. This arrangement essentially involves acombination of a doctor blade preferably of rubber but which may also beof metal, a holder therefor to permit adjustment of the doctor bladeagainst the ends of the pad or screen roller, a pan below the screen orpad roller, an infeed pipe to supply ink to the pan, an overflow pipe tomain tain the ink at the proper level in the pan and an extra drain forleakage. This simple construction contrasts with ink feed sys ternswhich must be operated at limited speeds not exceeding 150 feet perminute to avoid splashing and spatter.

' The present system may be conveniently operated up to 1000 feet perminute without the slightest splash or loss of ink. Furthermore with thepresent system it is not necessary to cover the rollers to prevent theink from splashing out from the bite between the rubber and screenrolls. 4 Furthermore, it is not necessary to operatethe rollers only inone direction because of the angular tangential position of the doctorblade. With the foregoing and other objects in view, their;- ventionconsists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of partsas hereinafter'morespecifieally described, and illustrated in theaccompanying; drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of theinventionbut it is to be understood that changes, variations andmodifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of theclaims hereunto appended;

In the drawings wherein like reference charactcrsdenote correspondingparts throughout; the several-views: Fig. 1 is a side diagrammaticviewshowing the; feed system of the present invention in relatively small;scale with the successive screen, rubber and impression rollers beingindicated in sequence and with their axes'in the same horizontal plane.a

Fig. 2' is a side elevation view partially in; seetipn upon a greatlyincreased scaleas-compareddogliigijl; showing the ink feed arrangementand; the manner 'in which the screen or pad-roller picks upink-fromtheiink supply.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view talgen npomthe hne 3-3 of Fig. 2illustrating the; positioning; ofthe be used as a drain and a holdermember Fwi-th'end'holders G which hold the vertical lower rubber bl'adeHf and the end rubber or metal blades I 'inposition against 7 the bottomand ends of-the screen or padroller Aj" The screen or pad roller Awillink the plate carry ing roller K which, in turn, will apply theprintingor other raised material L to. the sheet M whieh car-.

ried on the impression roller N.

Referring particularly to the panB it wilibe notedrthat it has a centralsemi-cylindrical recessed portionrlo exrubber vertical bottom blade 12which lightly rests upon and rubs against the cylinder at 13.

At the ends of the elongated cylindrical element F are the end blocks 14which are held in position by means of the bolts 15 threaded into thetapped recesses 16 in the elongated element F.

The upper inside portions of the end blocks 14 have slots 17 whichreceive the end rubber or metal blades 18 which fit against the ends ofthe rubber or screen pad roller A.

The ink level in the pan B is maintained by means of the overflow pipe Dwhich has an upwardly projecting portion 19 at one side of the pan B.

The upper end of the overflow 19 has an oblique cutoff 20 whichconverges at 21 towards the face of the rubber or screen roller A. Thisoverflow pipe D has a T connection at 22 to the drain C for the inkleakage. It will be noted that the cylindrical member F has internalpassageways 35 and 36 at an angle to each other which open at 37 on tothe floor 38 of the pan B (see Fig. 2). The ink supply E may beconnected to an ink pump and it is positioned at the opposite end of thepan from the connections C and D. It will be noted by the arrangement asshown that the blades H and I are not set so that the cylinder may onlyturn in one direction but by reversing the pan B so that the overflowpipe D will be on one side or the other of the pan, the roller system A,K, N, may be readily reversed.

It will also be noted that the extra drain C for leakage as well as theoverflow D may be positioned at the opposite end of the pan from theinfeed E. It is not necessary to cover the system of Figs. 1 to 3 sincethere will be no splashing nor will there be any substantial pressurebuilt up where the ink enters the bite between the rubber and screenrolls.

In fact the rubber roll is altogether eliminated with the screen rolldirectly picking up ink from the pan B. The screen roll A is preferablya chrome steel screen roller rather than a porous rubber roll.

In the preferred embodiment as shown the roll may have varying lengthswith a main rubber or metal doctor blade having the same length as thelength of the roll with one and seven-sixteenths inches extra length.

The end rubber doctor blades J are positioned at the ends of the roller.

The best doctor blade has been found to be a piece of rubber one-eighthinch by three-quarters inch and about four feet in length and it isdesirably held in slot 11 loosely without screws or binding means. Thisblade which is in vertical position contacting the roller at 13 has verylight pressure and has a minimum wiping action. Only a very limitedamount of ink is employed and as little as a quart of ink may beutilized in a fortyeight inch press.

The pan and blade may be operated at speeds up to 1000 feet per minuteor more without the slightest spash, spattering or loss of ink with theblades J forming barriers at the end of the pan B while the blade Hforms a barrier at the bottom of the pan B.

Any leakage of ink passed the blades H and I will be taken care of bythe leakage drain C which communicates with the passages 35 and 36 atthe bottom of the pan as indicated at 37.

Due to the absence of any boiling action as would result where the inkis forced into a bite between a rubber rollers and a screen roller,there is no loss of solvent by evaporation and the ink will be ofconstant quality and the printing will be much more satisfactory.

The whole pan unit B and associated mechanism may be dropped from theroller A and readily cleaned. The feed E of the incoming ink will bedirectly to the bottom of the pan B. Since the doctor blades J and H donot depend upon the direction of the screen roller, the printing pressand its feed system may be operated in either direction. It is thusapparent that the present in- 4 vention discloses a novel ink feedsystem which may b utilized in high speed printing presses with aminimum loss of ink and with the use of a very small amount of ink inthe pan.

The ink normally will be supplied through the infeed pipe E to thebottom of the right side of the pan as shown in Fig. 2 with the inkbeing held by the doctor blades J and H to the right half of the pan asshown in Fig. 2. Any excess ink will overflow through the overflow pipeD and any excess ink that passes the blades H and I will flow into theleft side of the pan and then drain downwardly through the drain C. Theink will be carried past the doctor blades H and J substantially 270before it is applied to the plate L and this plate then will passthrough about 180 before the impression is made upon the strip ofmaterial which is carried on the impression roller N.

A particular advantage of the above system results from the fact thatthe heavy solid gritty or hard particles settle to the bottom and awayfrom the line or point of contact of the steel or rubber doctor bladeand the roller, so that the roller lasts much longer and is much lesslikely to be scratched or scarred.

Furthermore where a doctor blade applied to the side of a roller with anupward inclination to form a V-shaped receptacle along the side or sidesof the roller the solid particles are kept in swirling agitatedsuspension in the ink being trapped by the blade.

While there has been herein described a preferred form of the invention,it should be understood that the same may be altered in details and inrelative arrangement of parts within the scope of the appended claims.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of theinvention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what isclaimed is:

1. A printing ink feed system for flexographic and aniline inks in whichthe ink is received from the ink pan by the screen roller and thentransferred to the plate roller and impressed upon the moving sheet ofmaterial on an impression roller by said plate roller, said pan beingseparated into an ink supply section and an ink drain section by doctorblades contacting the bottom and sides of the screen roller and said panbeing shallow and receiving only the bottom portion of the screen rollerand said blades being positioned in a vertical plane extending throughthe axis of the roller and said blades extending vertically upwardlyfrom the bottom and inwardly from the sides of said pan.

2. A printing ink feed system for flexographic and aniline inks in whichthe ink is received from the ink pan by the screen roller and thentransferred to the plate roller and impressed upon the moving sheet ofmaterial on an impression roller by said plate roller, said pan beingseparated into an ink supply section and an ink drain section by doctorblades contacting the bottom and sides of the screen roller, said doctorblades being positioned so that they will extend vertically upwardly andinwardly from bottom and sides of the pan to hold the ink on one side ofthe pan with any excess ink passing said blades into the other side ofthe pan being drained away.

3. A printing ink system for flexographic and aniline inks in which theink is received from the ink pan by the screen roller and thentransferred to the plate roller and impressed upon the moving sheet ofmaterial on an impression roller by said plate roller, said pan beingseparated into an ink supply section and an ink drain section by doctorblades contacting the bottom and sides of the screen roller, said panbeing longitudinally split by doctor blades contacting the bottom faceand side edges of the screen roller so that all of the ink is held onone side of the pan to be picked up by the incoming descending lowersection of the screen roller and said pan being shallow and receivingonly the bottom portion of the screen roller and said blades beingpositioned in a vertical plane extending through the axis of the rollerand said blades extending vertically upwardly from the bottom andinwardly from the sides of said pan.

4. A printing ink applying system having an elongated pan centrally andlongitudinally divided into two longitudinally separate compartments,one serving as a drain compartment and the other one serving as an inksupply compartment, a pad roller having its lower side rotating in saidpan through the upper part of said compartments, means contacting thebottom and side of said roller in said pan separating said compartments,conduits to supply ink to said supply compartment and to drain it fromsaid drain compartment, said means consisting of vertical doctor bladesextending upwardly from the bottom of and inwardly from the sides of thepan, said blades being positioned in a vertical plane extending throughthe axis of the roller.

5. An ink feed system for roller printing having a shallow elongatedpan, into which the lower portion of the roller is received, a verticalupwardly extending doctor blade contacting the central lower portion ofthe roller the full length thereof and two sidewardly and inwardlyextending doctor blades from the ends of the pan, said blades being allpositioned in a vertical plane through the axis of the roller, conduitsto supply ink on one side of the blades and to remove it on the othersides of the'blades, an overflow pipe on the supply side to maintain aproper level, the supply side being filled with ink and the other sidebeing kept substantially empty; said roller being rotatable in eitherdirection and all foreign material settling away from the roller and theblades to the bottom of the pan.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,573,336 Holmwood Oct. 30, 1951 2,631,532 Harless Mar. 17, 19532,777,388 Meyer Jan. 15, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,064,270 France May 12,1954

